Asians Education

It's lunchtime at San Gabriel High School. Here are the Asian students, clustered on the grassy knoll. Over there are the Latino students, gathered around the cafeteria tables. There's little inter-ethnic mingling on this 3,232-student campus, where most of the student body is evenly split between Asians and Latinos. "I say 'hi' to them, but we stay to ourselves, that's just the way it is," says Angelica, 16, a Mexican-American clad in the teen grunge of flannel shirt and torn jeans.

In a major injection of new aid, the United States is donating $100 million over five years to this nation's troubled education system, including its religious schools, despite the fact that these so-called madrasas stand accused of breeding Islamic extremism. A program being admini- stered by the U.S. Agency for International Development has been geared to focus on training teachers, reforming curricula and assisting in the formation of school "adoption" programs.

Asians living in this country are nearly twice as likely as whites to have completed college, yet they earn less on average than whites, according to a Census Bureau analysis released Thursday. About 39% of Asians who are age 25 or older have finished at least four years of college, the study found, compared to 22% of whites. The statistical profile of Asians and Pacific Islanders is based on surveys conducted in 1990 and 1991.

Les Ho is 13 now, old enough to know that he had plenty of reasons to fail. Instead, the boy who grew up speaking Chinese, the son of a single, immigrant father, mastered the routine of public education, often slogging through three hours of homework a night. He will begin high school this fall with a tidy transcript of A's and Bs and aspirations of becoming a doctor. Then he will begin a new routine.

W. Ann Reynolds, chancellor of the California State University system, announced Friday the establishment of an advisory group on how the system's 20 campuses can better meet the needs of students of Asian-Pacific background. Reynolds unveiled the plan at a Los Angeles convention of Asian Americans in Higher Education, which continues through Sunday at the Sheraton Plaza La Reina Hotel.

The Bush Administration, citing a need to serve "new immigrant populations," is proposing a bilingual education program that would effectively exclude school districts with large numbers of Latino and Asian students--the largest minority-language groups--officials said Thursday.

A class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles this summer made some disturbing allegations. It said many African American and Latino students in California don't even have a shot at getting into the state's most prestigious public universities because their schools don't offer enough Advanced Placement classes. Those highly demanding courses are more crucial than ever these days.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 20% of California's fourth-graders were deemed proficient readers last year, meaning they had a solid command of challenging course work. The exam revealed that white and Asian students outperformed their black and Latino counterparts, a gap that remained constant over a six-year span. And girls consistently did better than boys.

Black and Latino students lag behind white and Asian students academically-- even when they come from similarly privileged backgrounds, according to a report released Sunday. Surveying data going back to the 1960s, the report by the New York-based College Board, which administers the SAT, found that academic underachievement among black and Latino students begins in the earliest grades and persists all the way into higher education.

Seeking to put to rest a five-year dispute, UC Berkeley Chancellor Ira Michael Heyman apologized Thursday for admissions policies that caused a recent decline in Asian undergraduate enrollment and pledged to help change those entrance requirements. "It is clear that decisions made in the admissions process indisputably had a disproportionate impact on Asians," Heyman said at a press conference here with leaders of the local Asian community. "That outcome was the product of insensitivity.

Black and Latino students lag behind white and Asian students academically-- even when they come from similarly privileged backgrounds, according to a report released Sunday. Surveying data going back to the 1960s, the report by the New York-based College Board, which administers the SAT, found that academic underachievement among black and Latino students begins in the earliest grades and persists all the way into higher education.

A class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles this summer made some disturbing allegations. It said many African American and Latino students in California don't even have a shot at getting into the state's most prestigious public universities because their schools don't offer enough Advanced Placement classes. Those highly demanding courses are more crucial than ever these days.

The event: Dinner and informal modeling of Asian-inspired fashions at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana. Saturday's benefit was staged by Medellas (Medical, Dental and Legal Ladies Society of Orange County), a women's philanthropic organization. Members raised funds for the Bowers' Asian educational programs. Fabric art: More than 250 guests dined on sesame-encrusted chicken breast with ginger glaze and other exotic Asian-Californian fare at the museum's Topaz Cafe.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 20% of California's fourth-graders were deemed proficient readers last year, meaning they had a solid command of challenging course work. The exam revealed that white and Asian students outperformed their black and Latino counterparts, a gap that remained constant over a six-year span. And girls consistently did better than boys.

At 8:50 a.m. every Saturday in San Marino, students rise on command in their classrooms and bow in unison to their teacher. "Lao shi hao!" they say together. "Greetings, teacher!" The students take their seats and listen to their weekly lesson on ethical values, then settle in for three hours of language drilling and memorization.

In the beginning, they were four teachers and 30 children who gathered every week in a small rented schoolroom. These days, the clanging of a hand-held brass bell summons 1,000 youngsters, ages 5 to 18, to Sunday mornings at the Irvine Chinese School, which has mushroomed over the past 22 years into the largest Chinese cultural school in Southern California.

In the beginning, they were four teachers and 30 children who gathered every week in a small rented schoolroom. These days, the clanging of a hand-held brass bell summons 1,000 youngsters, ages 5 to 18, to Sunday mornings at the Irvine Chinese School, which has mushroomed over the past 22 years into the largest Chinese cultural school in Southern California.

In the beginning, they were four teachers and 30 children who gathered every week in a small, rented schoolroom. These days, the clanging of a hand-held brass bell summons 1,000 youngsters, ages 5 to 18, to Sunday mornings at the Irvine Chinese School, which has mushroomed over the last 22 years into the largest Chinese cultural school in Southern California.